Hundreds of raucous Democrats, crowded into the cavernous
downtown Hilton Hotel ballroom for their election-night victory bash,
roared when a woman with closely cropped dark hair and black-rimmed
glasses took the stage.

She waved to the
crowd but didn’t shake her fist or cry out as other politicians had
done—even though she had plenty of reason to sound off.

Rep. Tina Kotek
(D-North Portland) had orchestrated a Democratic near sweep of Oregon
House seats that were up for grabs in the Nov. 6 election, giving the
Dems a 34-26 majority and Kotek a path to become Oregon’s new House
speaker.

But rather than feed the frenzy, Kotek, 46, stood silently, waiting for the crowd to fall quiet.

“I’m one of those people,” Kotek said, “who wants to see the numbers before calling the game.”

“She’s
detail-oriented, focused and a quick study,” says Kim Thomas, who worked
with Kotek at the Oregon Food Bank a decade ago. “We worked together in
the heyday of welfare reform. Tina was pivotal in getting board members
and others to transform our program.”

Kotek is the
Democratic caucus leader—and that means she will be speaker of the House
when the Legislature convenes in February. She’ll become the first
female Democrat to lead the House since 1990, when Vera Katz last
wielded the gavel.

When Kotek takes the
House Democratic caucus for a three-day retreat to the Salishan resort
this weekend, she’s likely to be presented with more wish lists than
Santa Claus.

They will include
competing demands and priorities—chief among them Gov. John Kitzhaber’s
desire to slash pension costs, no small feat given how much Democrats
generally (and Kotek in particular) have relied on campaign
contributions from public-employee unions.

Many Democrats also
hope to trim the state’s corrections spending—an idea that has allowed
Republicans in the past to label them as soft on crime.

But the heaviest lift
will be the Columbia River Crossing, the troubled $3.5 billion bridge
and freeway project Kitzhaber wants lawmakers to help pay for next year,
probably with higher gasoline taxes.

Backers of the CRC
couldn’t have asked for a better ally in the speaker: The project falls
in Kotek’s district, and she’s been its tireless champion despite
criticism the crossing is bloated and poorly designed, and its finances
don’t pencil out.

“We have safety, congestion and health issues that can be resolved by the project,” Kotek told WW in a September endorsement interview. “I think the project has gotten better.”

Kotek declined to be
interviewed for this story. Colleagues say despite Kotek’s strengths,
neither the CRC nor other top priorities will be an easy sell among
Democrats, let alone the House as a whole.

“The biggest
challenge that she’ll face is not battling Republicans but trying to get
consensus in her own caucus,” says Rep. Vicki Berger (R-Salem), a
five-term incumbent. “When you have a big majority, the battles are
within the party.”

Kotek’s colleagues
have often been fractious. In 2010, Democrat infighting triggered the
overthrow of the caucus leaders—then-Speaker Dave Hunt (D-Gladstone) and
Rep. Mary Nolan (D-Portland)—neither of whom ran for re-election this
year.

Kotek, who was a
bystander in the battle between Hunt and Nolan, won election as caucus
leader after the 2011 session, when the House split 30-30.

When the Democrats’
co-House Speaker, Arnie Roblan (D-Coos Bay), decided to run for the
Senate, Kotek’s path was clear to ascend to the top spot for 2013.

Kotek is a native of
York, Pa., who held her high school’s record in the long jump. She
dropped out of Georgetown University and moved to the Northwest in 1987,
where she earned degrees at the University of Oregon in religious
studies in 1990 and at the University of Washington in international
studies in 1998.

After that she took a
job at the Oregon Food Bank as a public-policy advocate. “She was a
remarkable young woman who had a way of listening and following up with
questions and working with people to seek solutions,” says Ellen Lowe, a
longtime social-services lobbyist. “She wasn’t just there to give away
food.”

A year later, Kotek
made her first bid for the Oregon Legislature, losing in a primary race
to Chip Shields for an open seat in House District 43 in North and
Northeast Portland. After that, Kotek moved into neighboring House
District 44 so she could make another run—and this time she won.

Kotek showed steel in her freshman term.

In 2007, lawmakers
debated a bill to give gay couples the right to register as domestic
partners, and the measure also outlawed discrimination based on sexual
orientation. It was the first chance Democrats had seen after 16 years
of GOP rule in the House to bring such a bill to a vote.

One foe, Rep. Dennis
Richardson (R-Central Point), said he opposed the bill and equated
homosexuality with self-destructive habits such as smoking and drinking.

Kotek, who is a
lesbian, shot back at Richardson. “I experience my life as a
second-class citizen almost every day,” Kotek said, telling Richardson
to stop attacking “my personal character.”

In the 2013 session,
Kitzhaber says he hopes to reform the Public Employee Retirement System,
in part by curbing cost-of-living increases for some retirees.

The governor’s
plans—which could shave as much as $1 billion from the next state
budget—have already angered public employees, who say Kitzhaber’s
proposals undermine their rights.

So far, Kotek’s
public comments about Kitzhaber’s push to reduce PERS costs have been at
best equivocal—which could be because she doesn’t want to alienate her
party’s labor-union base, or because she’s a shrewd negotiator who’s in
no hurry to show her hand.

“If anybody can deal
with the public-employee unions, it’s going to be her,” says Rep. Mitch
Greenlick (D-Portland), who has worked closely with Kotek on health-care
legislation. “It’s going to be a very fine walk to balance between
employee demands and what we need to do. She’s trusted by the unions,
but she’s tough.”

Kotek must also
handle a perennial vulnerability for Democrats—the desire to hold back
corrections costs while not appearing to be going easy on criminals.

During the past year,
a sentencing commission put together by Kitzhaber has looked at ways to
slow the cost of imprisoning Oregonians. At a minimum, Democrats will
attempt to head off new prison construction, but they will also probably
try to give judges more sentencing discretion and look for other ways
to reduce prison time.

Rep. Val Hoyle (D-Eugene), the newly elected House majority leader, says Kotek has the skills to juggle competing demands.

“She’s methodical, open and doesn’t engage in drama,” Hoyle says.

Even with a 34-26
Democratic majority, Kotek may still need Republican support. Rep. Andy
Olson (R-Albany), a former state trooper who co-chaired the House Rules
Committee with Kotek in 2011, says she’s earned a solid reputation for
bipartisan dealings.

“She’s always willing to listen to ideas that might be different from hers,” Olson says.

Kotek’s control of
her caucus and her political skills will be put to an early test in 2013
by the Columbia River Crossing project.

Kitzhaber and other
backers—including trade unions and business interests—want speedy
approval of the state’s $450 million contribution to the project. In the
House, that job got a bit easier, given that two leading critics of the
CRC, Reps. Katie Eyre (R-Hillsboro) and Jefferson Smith (D-East
Portland), aren’t returning in 2013.

But it’s still a big
challenge: Key Democrats, such as Reps. Jules Bailey of Portland and
Chris Garrett of Lake Oswego, have been skeptical of the project.

And while some House
GOP members whose districts abut the Columbia River may be supportive,
downstate Republicans have little reason to back an expenditure that
many see as primarily benefitting Portland—especially if it means hiking
gas taxes or vehicle fees to pay for it.

All of the funding
options CRC backers offered lawmakers this fall require some combination
of a higher gas tax and a fee increase. That means Kotek will have to
summon a three-fifths super-majority—36 votes in the 60-seat House—to
get the CRC funding through.

From a political
perspective, getting Republican votes for a tax increase is always
challenging. And Democrats will be placed in the unenviable position of
having to tell supporters of education and human services there’s no new
money for their constituencies—while trying to justify a tax for a
project that has been mired in controversy.

For starters, CRC
officials ignored warnings from the U.S. Coast Guard and have designed
the bridge at least 30 feet too low for anticipated river traffic. CRC
officials have shown little desire to back away from the flawed design.

Meanwhile, State
Treasurer Ted Wheeler has said the current funding plan won’t cover
debts Oregon must incur to build the project. And Kitzhaber and other
CRC backers will be pushing for a vote on the project long before a
thorough financial analysis of the existing financing plan is ready.

Eyre—a Republican
whose opposition to the CRC cost her business support in her November
loss—says Kotek faces a difficult combination: a tax increase early in
the session and uncertainty over the Coast Guard’s height concerns.

“As long as the Coast
Guard has not signed off,” Eyre says, “it’s going to be a very
difficult task to get it through the House.”